How Much Does It Cost to Develop a Dating App Like Tinder?

Modern technologies have influenced the personal relationship a lot. Nowadays, many people tent to find a life partner online. That’s why creating apps, chats, sites of a dating background are becoming so popular. Of course, starting the development of your own project, it’s better to pay attention to one of the most interesting representatives of such services – Tinder app. This mobile application allows finding people who are near you and want to communicate.

So, let’s figure out how to create a dating app like Tinder and its cost.

The cost of creating an app like Tinder

Long story short, the price of this app depends on the complexity of its features and the development company. The approximate cost of the basic Android or iOS app will vary from $50,000 to $55,000 if you take the average hourly rates of $50 in Eastern Europe. Of course, if you want to create apps for both platforms at the same time, you need to double the budget.

Let’s discuss the grounds for this price.

Why is Tinder so popular?

The first point to consider is the simplicity of using Tinder. Actually, you just swipe right or left for liking or skipping a particular person. If two people like each other, Tinder creates a match.

Moreover, Tinder gives an opportunity for integration with Instagram. As a result, users can look through the Instagram profiles of their matches. So, people can discover whether they have common friends, interests or favorite places.

You may think that Tinder is a simple app but there are a lot of complex algorithms invisible to users. Let’s consider some peculiarities:

Users can see only one person at a time but a lot of users swipe left and right simultaneously;
Each user sees people in a different order. It means that a developer needs to structure the profiles into different groups;
Attractive and unattractive people are intentionally mixed up and shown with non-repeatable frequency;
There is an algorithm that defines who, when, and to whom need to be shown in order to create a match.

Tinder app features

Not only the above algorithms make Tinder so popular. There are a lot of functions that require a certain amount of money and time.

Authorization and user profile. Tinder uses a Facebook authorization engine. It’s implemented via an open authorizations protocol, like OAth. The advantage is that the app itself doesn’t remember the login or password of social media account. One more comfortable way to log in is using the phone number. Moreover, profile editing is implemented via the client-server of the application. On the client side, users can enter or edit personal information. On the server side, appropriate records are saved.
App settings and notifications. Tinder provides an opportunity to adjust the appropriate setting. So, users can enable or disable the notifications as for the creation of new matches, receiving messages, likes, etc. This function can be implemented via the interaction of your application with Apple / Google servers. For example, you can use FCM (Firebase Cloud Messaging) for an Android app and APN (Apple Push Notifications) for iOS.
Geolocation and communication. The vital function of Tinder is geolocation. It can be integrated with Google / Apple Locations and Maps. One more interesting function is the ability to communicate only when the users have mutual likes. Usually, this feature is implemented via the RESTful API or through HTTP.
There are some functions like changing location, rewinding the last swipe, and turning off ads that users can buy. In-app purchase is integrated via the In-app Billing API for Android apps and the Store Kit framework for iOS ones.

Of course, these features cannot display the whole list of costs required for developing a Tinder-like app. It’s necessary to consider the design because users don’t want to spend time understanding how to deal with your app. As a result, it should be intuitive and easy to use.

How to create an app like Tinder: Development Team

The location of your development team will definitely affect your price. For example, if you want to hire developers from the USA or Western Europe, be ready to double the expenses of the project. However, software engineers from Eastern Europe can create a product with the same quality but require less money. For instance, an average Ukranian developer’s rate is $50 per hour.

So, creating an app like Tinder, you will need such members of the team:

2 back-end developers
1 designer
2 Android developers
2 iOS developers
1 project manager
1 or 2 quality assurance engineers

What is the cost of the Tinder app made up from?

Developing features mentioned above require time. Let’s figure out how many hours are required for building these basic functions of a Tinder-like dating app.

Authorization – 22 hours
GPS location – 7 hours
Settings – 60 hours
User profile – 85 hours
Matching functionality – 90 hours
Notifications – 25 hours
Communication – 125 hours
3rd party services integration – 30 hours

As you can see, the development takes approximately 450 hours for one platform. But there are some additional work and expenses that should be considered. For example, non-development processes require 180 hours for one platform. Moreover, there are such types of work as design (135 hours), QA (220 hours), and release (20 hours). One more important part of work is the frameworks and libraries integration. It takes 27 hours on iOS and 30 hours on Android. The last type of work is a general one that can require 65 hours on iOS and 67 hours on Android. As a result, the total development time is 1097 hours for iOS and 1102 hours on Android. So, if you want to create apps for both platforms, the development time will be 2199 hours. Speaking about the total price, it can vary. According to an average hourly rate in Eastern Europe ($50/h), the cost is $58,850 for iOS and $55,100. Building apps for both platforms at the same time, you need to add these two numbers.

Summing up, in order to create an app like Tinder, it’s necessary to know the set of features that should be implemented. Nobody can estimate the development time without knowing its functionality in details.